Sunday, May 20, 2007

Creativity Project. I had an assignment to complete for my PhD coursework - do a creative project and document the experience. Thoughts ran through my head - compose a poem? a tune? a drawing? dance or sculpt? After some musing, and wandering through my tomes of garnishes and decorative food, as an INFP (a new discovery from another of the courses), the "F" is for Feeling -- I felt like combining doing something I loved, with a little challenge. I love cooking, creating tasty and eye appealing meals, but am challenged by the more artistic, sculpting or carving type of food. I also took on a second challenge, which was to create from things already in the house. After glancing through the cupboards, and peering into the refrigerator, I decided to make Cherry-filled Lemon Baskets.

However, once the creative juices start flowing, it's hard to stop. So the entire meal became a creative venture. There were some 'beer-battered fish tenders' in the freezer, and a lot of them. A result of one of those Safeway 2 for 1 specials. And I had been appalled that I picked up a 2fer that was a loser. The 'tenders' had a very gooey dough that didn't seem to cook through before burning on the outside and only had a sliver of fish the first time I tried a few in the package. Since creativity was flowing, an idea rushed into my mind -- Baja Tacos! With the diced tomatoes, lettuce and toppings the fish would be rather disguised, and Baja Tacos use battered deep fried white fish! So I present a photo of the Baja Taco above. It was actually quite good.

I also didn't want to waste all the luscious insides of those 'Purity' organic lemons! Remembering that I had been toying with the idea of a fasting cleanse (The Master Cleanse), which requires that you only drink a type of lemonade for 7 - 40 days, I thought it might be wise to try the drink to see if it were bearable. So I created lemonade from the pulp of the lemons, and Grade B maple syrup (as the cleanse calls for), but did leave out the cayanne pepper. The resulting drink was pretty, and rather tasty, but I don't know about drinking that exclusively for nourishment for weeks! The lemonade, and dinner table are pictured above.

Creativity turned into a jointly joyful experience when my Dad seemed to get more excited than usual about the meal. We ate it on the deck, he seemed to be relishing the food, and he commented on how pretty the Cherry-filled Lemon Baskets were. He also said "You sure know how to set a table!" -- a high compliment that he used to say to my mother. When he left the table, he was actually singing! Could it be the effect of all the creativity poured into the meal?

I made a slide show of the process from carving to table, which is at the post just above (Blogger wouldn't let it save into this file for some strange reason.)

"What is the meaning of creativity itself? But as with all other fundamental questions we cannot give a final answer, but we have to constantly see afresh. For the present we can say that creativity is not only the fresh perception of new meanings, and the ultimate unfoldment of this perception within the manifest and the somatic, but I would say that it is ultimately the action of the infinite in the sphere of the finite - that is, this meaning goes to infinite depths." (p. 181, The Essential David Bohm)

I'm soooo glad to have a practical assignment that is not just intellectualizing about the subject :-)

Marin County Food Inspection Reports

The original online database of food inspection reports in Marin County was updated and moved to another URL in 2012. The pre-2012 links in posts here will not work, but you can look up all restaurants ratings here.

Anna lives in Mill Valley California and enjoys writing about her food and travel adventures in and out of Marin County.

"...what I would like to capture aren't thoughts but the scent of my happiness!"- Jacques Henri Lartique